June of the 14th year of Shenwu, according to the Gregorian calendar, it was already August, and it was the hottest time in the north. Three hundred miles outside the Great Wall, a young Mongolian man was grazing in Lu.

Chaolu means stone in Mongolian. His father gave him this name and hoped that he could survive like a stone.

Chaolu is fifteen or sixteen years old. He doesn't know how old he is, even his mother doesn't know. Since the Mongols were driven out of the Central Plains by the Han people, they quickly degenerated into nomadic peoples. Mongolian young men like Chaolu don't know at all. Chaolu rode a brown Mongolian horse and was grazing herding sheep for the Taiji Master in the tribe.

The climate of the small glacier has a great impact on the agricultural civilization of the Central Plains, but it has a greater impact on these nomadic peoples. The productivity of these Mongolians is extremely low. A cold current can freeze a large number of sheep to death. Without the sheep, these Mongolians can only starve to death. But there is no way out. After the cold current in previous years, the Taiji people in Mongolia had to divert the internal conflicts within the tribe and recruit young people to plunder the Ming Dynasty in the south.

Chaolu's father followed Master Taiji to the south, but Chaolu's father was unfortunate. He met Emperor Shenwu, the Lord of Zhongxing in the Ming Dynasty. Chaolu's father also died in the south in a battle.

After Chaolu's father died, his mother was snatched away by other tribes the next year and there was no news. Taiji in the tribe saw that Chaolu was quite quick and asked him to herd sheep for him. In this way, Chaolu had a bite of food.

Chaolu has grown up this year, and according to the rules of the Mongols, he is already an adult soldier. If Chaolu had to pick up a sabre to fight for Taiwan and Kyrgyzstan, he would either die at the hands of the Mongols or at the hands of the Han people. However, the powerful Qing Dynasty in recent years has been eliminated by the Han people, let alone the Mongols who lack even iron tools. Therefore, in recent years, there have been many Mongolians outside the pass. Although the internal battles of their own people have never stopped, the full-scale war against the Ming Dynasty has not been carried out for many years.

Chaolu grazed herding sheep for Master Taiji with the dream of killing people and snatching things. Today he was lying on the grass and sleeping, while having a dream of snatching women and snatching cattle and sheep. Chaolu, who was sleeping, suddenly felt a vibration coming from the ground beneath him. This vibration was very familiar, and it was the sound of footsteps of a large army marching.

Chaolu got up and rushed to the south, and saw a large area of ​​smoke and dust rising from the horizon in the distance. Chaolu lived on horseback since childhood and was born a soldier. He was very familiar with this smoke and dust. It was the dust that could only be stirred up when a large group of people marched.

Looking at the scale and size of smoke and dust, as well as the vibrations from the ground, I estimated that this army had more than 100,000 people. You should know that the Mongolian region is vast and sparsely populated, with many tribes of all sizes, but there are not many other armies that can gather such armies except for a few large tribes.

Chaolu knew that the army must send scouts from afar. Now, seeing that the army is quite far away, the scouts may be in front of him. Chaolu, who was at a critical moment of life and death, dared not hesitate, quickly got up and rode a horse to drive the flock away from afar, and ran back to report to his tribe to prevent sneak attacks by these unknown troops.

This army that appeared outside the Great Wall Pass was the Ming army led by Zhu Hongsan, but there was no estimated more than 100,000 troops in Chaolu. However, these new troops carried a large number of artillery and used many horses to pull carts, so from a distance, it looked like more than 100,000 people covering the sky and the sun.

The front troop of the Ming army was vanguarded by five thousand cavalry. These people were transferred from Datong when Zhu Hongsan was in Zhangjiakou. After all, it was still easy to use cavalry when he arrived at the Mongols' territory. The commander of these cavalry was Zhu Hongsan's cheap son-in-law Zhao Hu.

Behind the cavalry are musketeers, in the middle is the most elite imperial guards, and in the middle is the emperor's imperial chariot protected by the 10,000 Jinyiwei. Zhu Hongsan's imperial chariot is naturally extremely luxurious, and it is no less than Zhang Juzheng's sedan chair back then.

This imperial chariot is better than a moving house. The entire imperial chariot is divided into three rooms. The outermost part is a ten-square-meter viewing platform, which has a living room and a lounge, and a mobile toilet for the emperor to facilitate.

This imperial chariot is so luxurious and naturally large, with forty horses leading outside. Zhu Hongsan is different from the time in Guangdong. At that time, there were no horse farms to raise horses, so there was a shortage of horses. Now Zhu Hongsan has occupied the Hetao area, so there is no shortage of horses.

Zhu Hongsan sat in the dragon chaise on the observation deck, looking at the scenery of the prairie. In the late Ming Dynasty, the soil and water outside Zhangjiakou was well maintained, and there was no desertification. Small lakes could be seen everywhere. The blue sky and green water, coupled with the endless grassland, made Zhu Hongsan feel very good now.

At this time, a horse came to the imperial chariot and handed a military newspaper to commander-in-chief Han Sanqiang. After reading it, Han Sanqiang came to Zhu Hongsan and said, "Your Majesty, the cavalry scouts have heard that there are a small group of Mongolian cavalry operations on the east side of our army, with about a few hundred people. It is probably the Mongol scouts. General Zhao asked His Majesty to order them to be eliminated!"

The Mongolian cavalry of hundreds of people was probably sent by the tribe to inquire about the information. Zhu Hongsan closed his eyes and said, "Don't worry about them. Let Zhao Hu send more scouts to monitor them!"

Han Sanqiang took the order and arranged the matter. Zhu Hongsan said to Li Chengen beside him: "Where are Zhu Shengduo and Zhu Yuan? Where have these two boys gone?"

"Go back to the emperor, the first time I came to the grassland, I saw that everything was fresh. I just went out to ride a horse and relax!"

Zhu Hongsan nodded. After all, these two children grew up in the south and had never seen such endless grasslands outside the pass. It is worth being curious, but safety must be guaranteed. After all, this place is not in China, and the Mongolians are very wild.

"Old Li, send them escorts and tell them not to run away. The Mongols around are not good." Li Chengen received the emperor's order and hurried out to send two thousand Jinyiwei to protect Zhu Shengduo and Zhu Yuan and the two of them.

At this time, Zhu Shengduo and Zhu Yuan were riding horses outside. Zhu Yuan was seventeen years old this year, and Zhu Shengduo was only twelve years old. He was both a child and naturally was curious about everything.

Zhu Shengduo learned to ride a horse with the Jinyiwei in the palace, but it was the first time that he rode a horse unscrupulously like today. Zhu Yuan was similar, so they naturally had to relax when they got this opportunity.

The British imported Sharem horse that Zhu Shengduo rode was actually the descendant of Zhao Hu's mount. This kind of horse was two meters tall when adults, and it was very majestic when riding on it. Zhu Shengduo is Zhu Hai's own son, so he is naturally close to Zhao Hu. It is easy to ask for a Sharem horse from Zhao Hu. However, this horse has not yet grown up, but it is much taller than an ordinary Mongolian horse.

Zhu Yuan has received support from nobles in recent years and is much richer at hand. Naturally, the horse he rides cannot be shabby. Zhu Yuan rides a red Arabian horse, which is a slender horse and is best at short-distance sprinting.

Zhu Shengduo was riding on the horse at this time and was angry. He lost both horse racing just now, so the child was naturally very unhappy. But he can't blame him for this. The Sharma he rode was not good at sprinting, and the horse was not yet adult, so the Arabian horse he faced Zhu Yuan was naturally no match for.

When Zhu Yuan saw Zhu Shengduo angry, he said with a smile: "Boy, how about it? I told you that you are not a match. Your uncle bought this horse from overseas for a lot of money!"

Zhu Shengduo was angry when he saw Zhu Yuan's smug look: "What my uncle said is that the horse he gave me is worth a thousand gold, why can't he escape from my uncle's pony?"

Someone who knows the knowledge among Zhu Shengduo's guards said this and explained on the side: "Prince, the horse given by the prince consort is indeed extremely valuable, but this horse is mainly used on the battlefield. Short-distance sprinting is not his strength, not to mention that this horse has not yet grown up, so he can lose to the general of the auxiliary country!"

Zhu Shengduo was very curious when he heard the guards say this, and quickly asked, "I heard that my uncle defeated Wu Sangui's 50,000 Liaodong Iron Cavalry in Henan back then. Isn't that true?"

The guard smiled and said, "These are all rumors. It is true that the eldest son-in-law led two thousand cavalry to charge, but the front battlefield still requires the cooperation of the cavalry led by the second son-in-law. The eldest son-in-law can defeat Wu Sangui's flank with very little force!"

Zhu Shengduo was fascinated by his longing and asked quickly: "I heard that my uncle was wearing heavy armor like an iron tower, and those Qing soldiers were trampled to death by his uncle's horse hooves. Isn't that true?"

"This is true. At that time, the Qing army's offensive momentum was blocked by the second son-in-law, so the eldest son-in-law could rush into the flanks of the Qing army. So as the last general said just now, the speed of the war horse is not very important. Only by using the equipment in his hands can he be invincible!"

Zhu Yuan was very polite when he heard this guard. In addition, he was very unhappy when he was called General Supplementary State by this guy. He couldn't help but ask: "You guy knows so much, why did you come to be your guard for my nephew?"

The guard immediately bowed and said, "The last general is Zhu Ren, the deputy general of the eldest son-in-law. He followed the eldest son-in-law to charge in the battle, so he knew something!"

Zhu Yuan never spoke again after Zhu Ren said this. Zhu Ren was Zhao Hu's deputy general. Zhao Hu is now the prince. Zhu Ren has a low status. Maybe he has a title. Zhu Yuan was really right. Zhu Ren was one of more than 20 boys adopted by Zhu Hongsan back then. He had a good relationship with Princess Zhu Luo and Princess Zhao Hu, because today Zhu Shengduo needs guards, so Zhao Hu could send his confidants to Zhu Shengduo as this ordinary guard.

Zhu Shengduo was overjoyed when he heard Zhu Ren say this: "Okay, it turns out that you are the deputy general of my uncle. If you have time, please tell me what happened on the battlefield back then!"

At this time, a sound of horse hooves came not far away. Zhu Shengduo turned his head and saw that a cavalry had been separated from his team and was coming to his side.
Chapter completed!